1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording device that carries out recording by ejecting ink from a recording head on a recording medium and a method for ink jet recording using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the spread of color documents in offices has been remarkable, and various output instruments therefore have been suggested. Specifically, inexpensive ink jet systems that allow for miniaturization are being used for various output instruments.
A recording head used for an ink jet system has energy generating means, energy converting means for converting the energy generated by the energy generating means to ink ejecting force, an ink ejection orifice from which ink droplets are ejected by the ink ejecting force, and an ink feeding pathway communicating with the ink ejection orifice for feeding ink. Examples of the energy generating means may include means using an electromechanical converter such as a piezo element, or means for heating ink using an electric heat converting element comprising a heat generating resistor to form air bubbles and for ejecting ink droplets by the generation of the air bubbles.
Such ink jet system has a problem in that the ink droplets remaining on the recording medium after depositing of the ink on the recording medium lead to setting-off of the ink to other recording media and to curling or cockle due to excess amount of ink absorbed by the recording medium, since the ink mainly consists of liquid components.
For this reason, carrying out heating or ventilating of the recording medium or the like in order to quickly dry the recording medium after depositing of the ink has often been proposed. However, there are concerns with regard to growing power consumption and device size. On the other hand, while there is a method comprising absorbing the excess liquid of ink remaining on the recording medium using blotting paper, this method is not practical because colorant components in the ink can also be absorbed by the paper.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2001-179959 discloses absorbing only excess liquid components (liquid solvent) of ink remaining on a recording medium by using a liquid absorber covered by a member having releasing property with respect to a coloring agent (colorant) after printing (after depositing of ink on a recording medium) for the purpose of absorbing only liquid components (liquid solvent) of the ink.
However, the above-mentioned method still has room for improvement because the positions for absorbing are scattered due to use of a surface layer having releasing property. Therefore, even though excess liquid of ink is absorbed, curling and cockle, and color bleeding occur due to differences in degrees of drying and penetration of ink placed on the recording medium.